Oatmeal Right From Your Coffee Maker

By Sarah Nassauer

Will people use their coffee maker to brew oatmeal?

General Mills Inc. thinks so. It plans to start selling Nature Valley brand oatmeal that can be cooked with a counter top Keurig machine. The machines make single servings of coffee, tea and other drinks using drop-in capsules.

Nature Valley Bistro Cups Oatmeal includes a packet of oatmeal, another packet of nuts and fruit and a flavor capsule that is mixed with the oats when hot water filters through the machine. The product is meant to capitalize on something Keurig owners already do: Use the machine to quickly brew water for their instant oatmeal, says John Haugen, vice president of New Business Development for General Mills.

The company plans to start selling the oatmeal with capsules this week on Amazon.com.

By providing the correct amount of oats for Keurig’s 6-ounce water setting, prepackaging nuts and fruit and eliminating microwave time, the product will be a time saver for busy morning eaters, says Mr. Haugen. Consumer tests of the product showed parents like that children can make oatmeal without handling hot water, he says.

Keurig Green Mountain Inc., the company that sells Keurig machines and which changed its name from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. in March, wasn’t involved in the product. Its patent for its K-Cups brand of capsules expired in 2012.

Keurig machines have quickly become a kitchen staplein many affluent homes across the U.S., but some investors have pushed the company to move beyond its core beverages in recent years as the patent expired.

Last year, Keurig said it would join with Campbell Soup Co. to sell its first nonbeverage K-Cup product, a flavor capsule to make soup with packets of dried noodles and vegetables it hoped consumers would use as a low calorie snack, diversifying their beverage business. At the time, Keurig said the product would be sold in 2014. It has yet to hit shelves.

This will be the first foray into oatmeal in over two decades for Golden Valley, Minn.-based General Mills, which earned about 22% of U.S. revenue from sales of cereals in fiscal year 2013. It plans to start selling Chex gluten-free instant oatmeal later this year, says a spokesman.

Hot cereal sales are growing, boosted by quick cook, portable products such as Quaker Real Medleys cups, a single-serve portion of oatmeal with fruits and nuts sold by Pepsi Co.’s Quaker Oats, the largest seller of oatmeal in the U.S.

General Mills will first sell large packages of Bistro Cups on Amazon.com and in Sam’s Club, owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. It plans in the fall to sell smaller three-portion-size packages in traditional grocery stores for a suggested retail price of about $6, says Mr. Haugen.